Ocean City Honors Arbor Day With Tree Plantings

Students from Mrs. Wira’s sixth-grade science class at Ocean City Intermediate School participate in a tree planting on Arbor Day in Ocean City, NJ.

The Ocean City Shade Tree Committee recognized Arbor Day on Friday as the holiday’s founder intended: by planting trees.

Committee members Mike Lehman, Mary Lou Hayes, Rick Mendham, Steve Wajda and Chairperson Joe Clark were on hand as city workers planted thundercloud plum trees on a mid-street island at the intersection of Harbor Road and Northpoint Road and at Ocean City Intermediate School.

Shade Tree Committee members Joe Clark, Steve Wajda, Mary Lou Hayes, Rick Mendham and Mike Lehman help plant at thundercloud plum at a public intersection near the Northpoint Lagoon.

The thundercloud plum is a fast-growing tree with red foliage and pink or white flowers in the spring. It grows up to 25 feet tall.

The following proclamation from Mayor Jay Gillian was part of the event:

WHEREAS, in 1872, J. Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees; and

WHEREAS, this holiday, called Arbor Day, was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska, and

WHEREAS, Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world; and

WHEREAS, trees can reduce the erosion of our precious topsoil by wind and water, cut heating and cooling costs, moderate the temperature, clean the air, produce life-giving oxygen and provide habitat for wildlife, and

WHEREAS, trees are a renewable resource giving us paper, wood for our homes, fuel for our fires, and beauty to our community; and

WHEREAS, trees, wherever they are planted, are a source of joy and spiritual renewal,

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Jay A. Gillian, Mayor of the City of Ocean City, New Jersey, hereby proclaim April 25, 2014, as Arbor Day in the City of Ocean City, and I urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands, and

FURTHER, I urge all citizens to plant trees to promote the well-being of this and future generations.

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In 1968, the Wiesenthal brothers, Don and Glenn, were beginning their more than a half century of auto repair and gasoline sales at 860 West Avenue – the highly visible corner of Ninth Street and West Avenue in Ocean City.
Although the brothers had hoped to continue to stay in business, their attempts to buy the building were unsuccessful, and they lost their lease. The building, at a site occupied by a gasoline station since 1935, Don Wiesenthal said, is slated for demolition.
The location will soon be the site of a bank and a parking lot.